The present invention relates to a machine for nailing slats transversely on stringers and more particularly to such a machine for fabricating pallets and half pallets.
The present invention resulted from a number of problems which have long confronted the pallet manufacturing industry and is conveniently described in such connection.
The palletizing of loads to be lifted, stacked, stored, transported and otherwise handled long ago revolutionized load handling procedures. Once loads are located on pallets in bins, on racks, or simply stacked, the loads can be conveniently lifted, transported, stacked and unstacked by means of forklifts or the like. The adoption of such procedures has required a vast number of pallets. The rapid deterioration of pallets has lead to heavy demands for replacement. Because of the voluminous need for pallets, their cost has been an important consideration. Nevertheless, because of the difficulties of automated production, many pallets are hand fabricated. Such production is tedious, time consuming and expensive. Generally speaking, the so-called automated mechanisms for the production of pallets have been subject to widely recognized but unsolved difficulties. They have still required excessive hand labor. They have required the hand positioning of slats on their stringers with consequent inefficiencies and inaccuracies. They have duplicated sophisticated nailing equipment in order to nail slats or deck boards on opposite sides of the pallets. They have usually required conveyors to transport stringers to a first nailing station, means for nailing slats on stringers at the first station to form half pallets, a conveyor for transporting the half pallets to a second nailing station, means for nailing slats on the half pallets at the second nailing station, and a conveyor to transport completed pallets from the second nailing station all along a continuous or straight line path. Such conveyors and their appurtenant mechanisms have required expensive floor space in many instances making them inconvenient, expensive, and/or impractical.
These and other problems have long been recognized and their solutions sought by manufacturers of automated fabricating equipment requiring the nailed interconnection of assembled wooden components. U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,439 issued Jan. 26, 1971 on the Dykeman Pallet Assembling System is illustrative of at least one form of the prior art devices.